Information is typically stored and accessed on a computer system using an "address" that identifies where in the computer system the information can be found. For public networks such as the Internet, an identifier known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is used to identify the address of a particular document. A URL typically includes a protocol identifier coupled to a domain identifier and optionally a filename and specifying where in the domain the document is stored. Moreover, a specific location in a document may also be included in a URL. Due to all of this information, however, a URL can be quite complex for some documents, which makes it difficult for a user to remember URL's of previously-viewed locations, not to mention to type the URL's in the computer even if they are remembered.
As a result, many web or hypertext browsers--the computer applications that are typically used to view documents stored on the Internet--employ aliasing to facilitate user access to previously-viewed documents. Aliases, which are often referred to as bookmarks, favorites, or shortcuts, typically include a unique word or phrase that a user can access to recall a document stored at a predetermined storage location (e.g., as identified by a URL). Aliases are typically maintained in drop-down menus that can be selected by a user to retrieve a particular document, thereby eliminating the need for a user to type in a document's URL to retrieve the document.
Conventional web browsers enable a user to create, or add, aliases to an alias list. Typically, in response to an "add" request for a particular document being viewed, an alias is created with a location identifier pointing to the URL for the current document, and with an alias identifier that is generated from the title for the document. Given that a significant portion of the information stored on the Internet is found in hypertext documents formatted using a standard language known as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), many browsers access an HTML tag known as a title tag to obtain the initial alias identifier for a document alias. A title tag, which has the format "&lt;title&gt; . . . &lt;/title&gt;", is principally used by a web browser to provide a short title that is typically displayed in the title bar of a web browser when the document is being viewed.
After initial creation of an alias, a user is often permitted to manually edit the alias identifier for an alias so that a custom identification of a document may be created by any user. Conventional browsers also permit aliases to be grouped together in folders to facilitate location of a particular alias in a list.
As many users "surf the net", they tend to create a large number of aliases along the way, often resulting in the creation of large and cumbersome alias lists. As the number of aliases in a list rises, it becomes more difficult to locate particular aliases, and can induce users to select the wrong alias by mistake. Given the increasing bottlenecks and delays that can be experienced while surfing the Internet, any navigation to incorrect locations can be time consuming and frustrating for many users.
A number of significant drawbacks that exist with conventional browsers only serve to aggravate the situation. For example, by creating aliases based upon the information stored in a title tag for a document, the quality of an automatically generated alias identifier is wholly dependent upon the quality of the title created by the author of the document. Since the primary purpose of the title is unrelated to aliasing, titles are often inadequate to uniquely identify documents, thereby nullifying the benefit of such automatically generated aliases in the first place. While a user can manually override an alias identifier, the user is left to create their own phrase that will later trigger their memory as to the contents of the document. This additional user effort often detracts from the user's other tasks and decreases productivity.
Another difficulty with conventional browsers is that the alias identifiers enabled by many browsers are limited to simple alphanumeric phrases of only a few words at the most. Particularly when a user has created aliases for many documents related to a particular subject, it can become difficult for a user to create a unique identifier for each and every document.
Therefore, while conventional aliasing techniques can provide some assistance to users when navigating with web browsers and the like, there is a great deal of room for advancement in these techniques so that additional user benefits can be realized.